Portrait: A Land Ravaged by Tsunami and Kidney Brokers

Maria Selvam is campaigning for relief funds for his tsunami-damaged village, Ernavoor. He publicized the story of kidney brokers in an effort to drum up support for his cause. The plan backfired and nearly got him killed by village toughs who think he dishonored local women by exposing the fact that they sold their kidneys.

Photo: Scott Carney

Rani's 8-inch scar is evidence of her kidney surgery. She says she still feels pain two years after surgery as a result of insufficient care following the operation.

Photo: Scott Carney

Mallika (no last name) is the only person to officially register a case with the police against a kidney broker. The broker promised $3,000 for her kidney, but gave her just $700, she says.

Now her 16-year-old son is on dialysis at Stanley Hospital in Chennai after jaundice destroyed his kidneys. "I wish I had never sold my kidney," Mallika said through tears during an interview with Wired News. "I could have saved my son's life with it. Now I need to buy one on the black market, but I don't have the money to do it."

Photo: Scott Carney

Maria Selvam (left) talks with a plainclothes police officer.

Photo: Scott Carney

Maria Selvam (far left) stands with other members of his political party, the Fishermen's Welfare Association.

Photo: Scott Carney

During an interview with Wired News, Maria Selvam lectures an unknown man on interview etiquette.

Photo: Scott Carney

Villagers assaulted Maria Selvam and threw rocks through his posters after he told reporters about 90 women who sold their kidneys.

Bava Fathurudeen is in charge of the Department of Medical Services, an obscure branch of the ministry of health charged with enforcing the Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994. He is leading an investigation of 52 hospitals in Chennai and Madurai, but says he is uncertain of his duties involving this case.

Photo: Scott Carney

This billboard posted inside the walls surrounding Devaki Hospital, where Ernavoor villager Rani underwent surgery to remove her kidney, lists the doctors who work there. The urology department's K.C. Reddy is an outspoken proponent of legalizing organ sales.

Photo: Scott Carney

The billboard advertises one of the two relief agencies working in Ernavoor to provide relief after the 2004 tsunami.

Photo: Scott Carney

These women in Ernavoor have sold their kidneys to brokers who paid them only a fraction of the amount promised.

Photo: Scott Carney

Rani sold her kidney to pay for her daughter's medical bills. Complications following the surgery have prevented her from working, and the organ broker paid her only $900 of $3,500 promised. She complains of constant pain in her side from where the surgeons removed her organ.

Photo: Scott Carney

Rani tells the story of her meeting with the Transplant Authorization Committee in Chennai. In order to proceed with the transplant, she testified that she was donating her kidney out of "love and affection" for a woman she didn't even know.

Photo: Scott Carney

Despite living in the shadow of a power plant, Rani rarely has access to electricity. The tsunami relief camp at Ernavoor was built on the least desirable land in the city. Every night a thick layer of soot covers the village and must be wiped away. Rani earns less than $2 a day and has to feed both herself and her husband on her wages. When her daughter attempted suicide, she sold her kidney to pay for the resulting medical bills.

Photo: Scott Carney

This chai seller runs a shop outside of Devaki Hospital, where Rani sold her kidney to a broker named Dhanalakshmi. He says he knew the broker, and that she moved back to Mumbai to live with her family. Dhanalakshmi paid Rani only $900 of the $3,500 promised.

Photo: Scott Carney

The first reports of organized gangs of kidney brokers came out of Ernavoor.

Photo: Scott Carney

A child plays in a tsunami relief camp called Ernavoor about seven miles north of Chennai. Trying to escape poverty following the 2004 tsunami, more than 90 women have sold their kidneys.

Photo: Scott Carney

This five-story Aynavaram municipal project earned the name kidneyvakkam, or Kidneyville, after 30 people sold their kidneys here in the last year.

Photo: Scott Carney

The overcrowded municipal slums in Aynavaram, India, on the north side of Chennai form one of the nicer kidneyvakkams in the city. According to a local politician, more than 30 people here have sold kidneys in the last year.

Photo: Scott Carney

Once a fishing village, the Ernavoor slum is now a refugee hutment -- and an easy hunting ground for kidney brokers.

Photo: Scott Carney

This small pool of water in the Ernavoor slum serves as a waste disposal site as well as a swimming pool and water source.

Photo: Scott Carney

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